


Cupid’s In-Laws

by Anonymous



Series: Stupid Cupid Universe [2]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-21
Updated: 2014-07-21
Packaged: 2018-02-09 18:24:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1993140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Missing moments from <i>Mrs. Cupid</i>. How did Sara get a strawberry emoji in the first place? And where is Laurel?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Strawberry Feels Forever

“Okay, almost got it set up.” Felicity tapped two fingers against the desk twice, an absent gesture she’d developed at MIT for luck, and hit the power-up button on the newest phone she’d tricked out. Designing the SmoakOS to work on the phone wasn’t an easy task, but since it fed right into their comm system and she could activate any number of things on the phone remotely—people really needed to stop trusting her with their privacy—it was worth installing her home-built OS on a few smartphones kept in reserve in one of Oliver’s caches, and for new team members.

They had two of those now.

“There,” she said, turning to face one of the two. Sara had kicked off her shoes the minute she’d come downstairs, but she still wore her half-apron, her black pants, and her black tank top that had become the ubiquitous bartender uniform. “I’ve personalized it a little bit, but I can do more.”

“Yeah?” Sara picked up the phone and tapped the screen a few times. “Like what?”

“Well, I’m assuming you want a cool ringtone, for one.”

“Regular ringtone’s fine.”

Felicity stopped herself before she could sag in disappointment. “Really? Because I can do amazing things with a midi file. But okay. I picked a pretty easy-to-read layout so you’ll be able to get information with a quick glance. But I can add things to the background, I can change the brightness functionality, your layout of the home screens, your emoji set, button functionality, and—”

“Emojis?” Sara lifted her head from studying the screen. “Like the smiley faces? You can give me different ones?”

That was the last thing Felicity had expected her to find interesting, but she was not one to let an opportunity go to waste. She cracked her knuckles together. “Strap in, Sara Lance, for I am about to _blow your mind_.”

Okay, maybe that had been an overstatement, Felicity thought, as she had to close down a few windows to bring up the emoji kits she’d created. But Sara edged close behind her chair, some of her hair brushing against the top of Felicity’s shoulder as she leaned in to peer at the screen. It tickled.

“So here’s the sets. All you have to do is pick one—or as many as you want, I built in enough space—and I’ll load it to your phone.”

“Just like that?”

“These fingers are magic,” Felicity said, wiggling them.

“I bet. That one.” She pointed.

Felicity had to double-check that she was following the right trail from Sara’s finger. “The fruit one?”

“Yup.”

“Really?” She’d only included that one in the kit because she suspected she might need to punish Oliver someday. It was glittery and sparkly, little fruit avatars in bright pink, orange, purple, blue, and red. It had seem liked good revenge for Mr. My-Voice-Changer-Does-Not-Make-Me-Sound-Like-A-Kidnapper Queen.

“Yes.”

“Okay.” Felicity loaded the emoji set onto the phone remotely. “Um, why?”

For a long moment, she wasn’t sure Sara was going to answer, but then the other woman straightened, smacking on a piece of gum. She pointed at two little avatars, a strawberry and a bunch of grapes. Both were obviously shaking with laughter. “Because someday I’m gonna need to laugh at somebody,” Sara said. “And there’s nothing more humiliating than being laughed at by fruit.”

Felicity stared for a long time. “You know, it’s lucky you’re on our side because I suspect you’re kind of evil.”

“Damned straight.” Sara’s grin flashed. “Thanks for the phone.”


	2. A Little Bit Heartsick

Laurel zipped up the suitcase and easily lifted it off the bed, setting it on the floor as though it weighed little. She’d always been strong thanks to the cross-training workouts she kept up every day, so it usually didn’t register, but now she heard her friend Joanna’s voice in her head. “Do you even lift?” her friend had asked, laughing as Laurel hauled in three heavy boxes to the CNRI headquarters one afternoon. She’d then suggested that if CNRI didn’t work out, maybe Laurel had a promising future in weightlifting competitions.

Months later, CNRI hadn’t worked out, but the only thing Laurel was lifting right now was her suitcase.

“You don’t have to leave right away, you know,” her mother said from the doorway of the guest bedroom.

Laurel turned with a forced smile. “I should get back. If somebody calls me back for an interview, I probably shouldn’t be a six-hour train ride away.”

“I understand.” Dinah reached out and ran her hand down Laurel’s arm and it took everything Laurel had not to lean into the touch. She missed her mother. She’d missed her mother for those bleak years when Dinah hadn’t been able to accept that Sara might be gone. “It’s just selfishness on my part. I liked having you around.”

In truth, Laurel had liked _being_ around. But she shook her head. “Somebody needs to remind Dad and Sara to eat.”

“I know. Like I said, it’s just me being selfish.”

Laurel bit her tongue before she could point out that if her mom wanted to see her and Sara so much, she could move back to Starling City. It might not be fair, but Dinah Lance had a life in Central City. Laurel had visited her at work for lunch during her visit and several coworkers had dropped by to “see what this incredibly smart daughter of Dinah’s looks like, she talks about you so much.” They’d visited some of the museums and some of Dinah’s favorite restaurants, and for hours at a time, Laurel had managed to tamp down some of the resentment and just enjoy herself. She’d even met the new boyfriend and had seen genuine happiness on Dinah’s face that had nothing to do with her or Sara.

Dinah straightened up, rubbing her hands against the thighs of her jeans. “Got it all, then?” she asked. “Of course, if you left anything behind, I’ll be happy to ship it back for you, but we should go if we’re going to have lunch before your train leaves.”

“I think that’s everything,” Laurel said, picking up the remote to turn off the news that she had kept on mute while she’d packed. It slipped through her fingers when Oliver Queen’s smiling face filled the screen.

For a second, her stomach plummeted, and she was right back in her kitchen, watching the news that the Queen’s Gambit had gone down. She scrambled for the mute button. Had he died? Had there been an accident? Was he—

“—married! That’s right, the eligible bachelor who spent five years stranded on an island off the coast of China is a bachelor no more,” the news reporter said as another picture of Oliver at a press conference flashed across the screen. “Sorry, ladies. The billionaire maverick is off the market. Sources spotted Queen and his bride—identified here as Felicity Smoak, an employee at Queen Consolidated—in Asia wearing matching wedding bands.”

The picture that came up on the screen was slightly blurry, but it was obviously Oliver. He had an arm around Felicity, like she was actually propping him up, and the news made sure to highlight the slightly blurry wedding rings on their fingers. Laurel had met her a couple of times. She’d mostly come across as a fidgety blonde ponytail in human form.

And now Oliver was married to her.

“Laurel?” It took a few seconds for her mother’s voice to break through her haze of disbelief. “Laurel. Can you hear me?”

Laurel turned her head.

“I thought Oliver and Sara were dating,” Dinah said, frowning.

“I need to sit down,” Laurel said, and did right there on the edge of the bed. She hadn’t even thought about Sara, or his weird relationship with her. All she’d been able to think was—actually, she wasn’t thinking, she realized. Her brain was completely numb, like there was a wall between her and all of her thoughts. “Oliver’s married.”

She felt the bed dip as her mother sat next to her. “It appears so. Laurel, I’m concerned. You’d told me that he and Sara were together.”

“I thought they were,” Laurel said. Did she feel ill? She felt ill. Maybe she needed to throw up. They were long over—one last hurrah and done because _Tommy_ \--but she still felt sick. “Maybe I was wrong? I didn’t know he even liked Felicity. I thought she was just his secretary.”

Dinah placed her hand on Laurel’s back, and Laurel instinctively leaned in. When Dinah hugged her, she didn’t pull away. “Really,” Dinah said, sounding unimpressed. “He married his secretary when he could have been with Sara.”

“Maybe it was a love thing.”

Dinah scoffed, and petted her hair. “Are you okay, sweetie?”

“Like I really want a drink,” Laurel said, and her mother went still. “I’m not going to get one. I just really want one. I need to talk to Sara.”

“That’s probably the reason your phone’s buzzing.”

Indeed, Laurel saw three texts from Sara.

_have u seen the news?? why r u not picking up_ — **sent at 11:44 a.m.**

_tried calling you to warn you, but ollie got married. they had my blessing, don’t worry._ — **sent at 11:47 a.m.**

_laur??????_ — **sent at 11:49 a.m.**

“My phone’s dropping calls again,” Laurel said in a distant voice, frowning at her screen. She passed the phone to Dinah. Oliver was _married_. “I should reply back to her, but…”

“Here.” Dinah tapped in a short message and eyed her critically. “You know what? Why don’t you push your ticket back for a couple of days? I’ll cancel my appointments for the afternoon, and we’ll go get our nails done.”

Instantly, relief rose at the idea. The last thing she wanted to do was go back to Starling City, Laurel realized. Her life was there, but she didn’t want to face Oliver right now, not when he was apparently moving on with his life so fast and she felt like hers was falling apart, between the loss of her job and the constant need for the comfort of pills to sand away at the raw edges of the pain.

“That sounds good,” she said. “Just let me text Sara and find something out.”

Dinah handed the phone back. Laurel typed away a question, sent it off, and waited. Sara’s reply was almost immediate.

_take all the time u need. i’ll keep an eye on dad. love you._ — **sent at 11:52 a.m.**

“Let’s go get a pedicure,” she said, and followed Dinah out of the room, trying to swallow down the heartsick feeling. Later that night, with her nails done in shiny black lacquer (it had seemed fitting), she logged onto her laptop in her mother’s guest bedroom and began a search for jobs in Central City.

She wasn’t ready to leave the legal industry for weightlifting yet, but maybe she was ready to leave Starling City for a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It occurred to me that I haven’t actually put Laurel in _Mrs. Cupid_. She’s been mentioned ONCE, and that was by Felicity. I’m choosing to blame Oliver’s lack of thinking about her on his incredible ability to compartmentalize rather than the author screwing up. But that doesn’t tell everybody where she’s been, so I thought I would fill in the gaps. Please don’t leave hate on this chapter. Finding out your ex with a complicated history just married somebody out of the blue is traumatic, and Laurel’s feelings, I feel, are valid no matter how you feel about the character.


End file.
